You may think the National Football League is a supreme power able to do anything it wants whenever the desire arises, and you are pretty much right. Nothing slows down the NFL and nobody tells the NFL what to do. Except Beyonce.
The NFL released its 2016 schedule this week, but the formal release of the final schedule was not released until it was confirmed Beyonce would not be adding any additional concert tour dates to NFL stadiums not already accounted for. That’s right, the NFL held back from releasing its schedule to make sure any NFL team and city wanting to get a Beyonce tour date got one first before hitting send on the NFL schedule emails.
A story on NFL.com outlined the challenges and issues facing the formation of this season’s NFL schedule…
The schedule that was released Thursday — one week earlier than usual, in part because the league wanted to give teams a chance to add those extra Queen Bey dates in their stadiums — was No. 43,066 spit out by the league’s computers. It hung on the wall as the leader in the clubhouse for eight days, the favorite because, among other things, there were no dud weeks for television, just two teams (Washington and Green Bay) were stuck with three-game road stretches and only one (the Giants) has to play a road game the week after a Monday night game on the road.
The NFL had a minor scheduling conflict to work around last year when it had to work around the schedule for the Papal visit to Philadelphia, which was expanded to stops in New York and Washington D.C. as well. But that is nothing compared to the draw of having Beyonce potentially taking a stage in multiple NFL stadiums while touring the country.
https://twitter.com/reverenddave/status/720769011374497793
https://twitter.com/A_Billi/status/720745393257115649
👑 RT @Mr1738: Damn Beyonce made the NFL plan around her
— Your OG 🐩 (@LRNROSE) April 15, 2016
Yes, Beyonce may be one of the few people to own the unique power to force the NFL to hit the pause button.
